The
General Assembly of the United Nations opens its fifty-eighth
session on 16 September at United Nations Headquarters in
New York. It brings together the delegations of all Member
States, most of them led by heads of State, Government or
Foreign Ministers, for an examination of a wide range of
international issues.

Forum for multilateral negotiation
The General Assembly, set up in 1945 under the Charter of
the United Nations, is the United Nations' main deliberative
organ and provides a forum for multilateral discussion of
the full spectrum of international issues covered by the
Charter. The Assembly comprises all Members of the United
Nations and meets in regular session each year from September
to December, and thereafter as required.

Functions
and powers of the General Assembly
As set out in the Charter of the United Nations, the functions
and powers of the United Nations General Assembly are:

To consider and make recommendations on the general principles
of cooperation for maintaining international peace and
security, including disarmament;
To discuss any question relating to international peace
and security and, except where a dispute or situation
is currently being discussed by the Security Council,
to make recommendations on it;
To discuss, with the same exception, and make recommendations
on any questions within the scope of the Charter or affecting
the powers and functions of any organ of the United Nations;
To initiate studies and make recommendations to promote
international political cooperation, the development and
codification of international law, the realization of
human rights and fundamental freedoms and international
collaboration in the economic, social, humanitarian, cultural,
educational and health fields;
To make recommendations for the peaceful settlement of
any situation which might impair friendly relations among
nations;
To receive and consider reports from the Security Council
and other United Nations organs;
To consider and approve the United Nations budget and
establish the financial assessments of Member States;
To elect the non-permanent members of the Security Council
and the members of other United Nations Councils and organs
and, on the recommendation of the Security Council, to
appoint the Secretary-General.

Pursuant
to its "Uniting for Peace" resolution of November
1950, the Assembly may also take action if the Security
Council fails to act, owing to the negative vote of a permanent
member, in a case where there appears to be a threat to
the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression. The
Assembly can consider the matter immediately with a view
to making recommendations to Members for collective measures
to maintain or restore international peace and security.

While
the Assembly is empowered to make only non-binding recommendations
to States on international issues within its competence,
it has, nonetheless, initiated actions-political, economic,
humanitarian, social and legal-which have affected the lives
of millions of people throughout the world.

The
search for consensus
Each Member State in the Assembly has one vote. Votes taken
on designated important issues, such as recommendations
on peace and security and the election of Security Council
members, require a two-thirds majority of Member States,
but other questions are decided by simple majority.

In
recent years a special effort has been made to achieve consensus
on issues, rather than requiring a formal vote, thus strengthening
support for the Assembly's decisions. The President consults
delegations to see whether they are willing to agree to
the adoption of a resolution without a vote. If they are,
he can formally propose that the resolution be so adopted.

Informal
meetings of the General Assembly
At its fifty-second session, the General Assembly initiated
a new way of achieving consensus on issues by discussing
the reform of the United Nations in informal meetings of
the plenary of the General Assembly. This practice was continued
at the fifty-third, fifty-fourth, fifty-fifth, fifty-sixth
and fifty-seventh sessions to discuss, in particular, issues
related to the Millennium Summit of the United Nations,
the special session of the General Assembly on HIV/AIDS,
strengthening of the United Nations system and the revitalization
of the Assembly.

Elections
for the President and Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly
and Chairs of Main Committees
As a result of the ongoing revitalization of its work and
pursuant to rule 30 of its rules of procedure, as amended
by Assembly resolution 56/509 of 8 July 2002, the General
Assembly elected its President and Vice-Presidents and Chairmen
of the six Main Committees for the fifty-eighth session
in June 2003, at least three months prior to the opening
of the session. Election for other officers of the Main
Committees shall be held no later than by the end of the
first week of the session.

General
Committee
A General Committee, composed of the President and 21 Vice-Presidents
of the Assembly and the Chairs of the six Main Committees,
makes recommendations to the Assembly about the adoption
of the agenda, the allocation of items and the organization
of work. With the early election of the President, Vice-Presidents
and Chairs of the Main Committees for the fifty-eighth session,
the General Committee for that session was thus fully constituted
in advance.

Credentials
Committee
A Credentials Committee, appointed by the General Assembly
at each session, reports to the Assembly on the credentials
of representatives.

General
debate
The General Assembly will open its annual general debate
on 23 September 2003, providing Member States with the opportunity
to express their views on major international issues.
The Secretary-General will present his report on the work
of the Organization immediately prior to the general debate,
a practice that began with the fifty-second session.
Before the general debate starts, the Assembly will have
a one day high-level plenary meeting, on 22 September 2003,
devoted to the follow-up to the outcome of the twenty-sixth
special session on HIV/AIDS, in accordance with General
Assembly resolution 57/308 of 22 May 2003.

Six
Main Committees
With the close of the general debate, the Assembly begins
consideration of the substantive items on its agenda. Because
of the great number of questions which it is called upon
to consider (169 separate agenda items at the fifty-seventh
session, for example), the Assembly distributes many questions
among its six Main Committees, which discuss them, seeking
where possible to harmonize the various approaches of States,
and then present to a plenary meeting of the Assembly draft
resolutions for consideration. The Disarmament and International
Security Committee (First Committee) is concerned with disarmament
and related international security questions. The Special
Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee)
deals with a variety of political subjects not dealt with
by the First Committee, as well as with decolonization.
The Economic and Financial Committee (Second Committee)
is concerned with economic questions. The Social, Humanitarian
and Cultural Committee (Third Committee) deals with social
and humanitarian issues. The Administrative and Budgetary
Committee (Fifth Committee) deals with the administration
and budget of the United Nations, and the Legal Committee
(Sixth Committee) deals with international legal matters.

On
a number of agenda items, however, such as the question
of Palestine and the situation in the Middle East, the Assembly
acts directly in its plenary meetings.

Working
groups of the General Assembly
The Open-ended Working Group on the Question of Equitable
Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the
Security Council and Other Matters Related to the Security
Council may continue its work during the fifty-eighth session.
As to the Ad Hoc Open-ended Working Group on the Causes
of Conflict and the Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable
Development in Africa, its mandate was extended until the
fifty-eighth session.

Regional
groups
Over the years various informal regional groupings have
evolved in the General Assembly as vehicles for consultation
and to facilitate procedural work. The groups are the African
States, the Asian States, the Eastern European States, the
Latin American and Caribbean States, and the Western European
and other States. Turkey, which for election purposes is
in the Group of Western European and other States, is also
a member of the Asian Group. The post of President of the
General Assembly rotates among the regional groups. For
the fifty-eighth session, the President has been elected
from the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States.

Special
sessions and emergency special sessions
In addition to its regular sessions, the Assembly may meet
in special and emergency sessions.
At turning points over the years, the Assembly has convened
27 special sessions on issues which demanded particular
attention, including problems of Palestine, United Nations
finances, Namibia, disarmament, international economic cooperation,
apartheid, drugs, the environment, population, women, social
development, human settlements and HIV/AIDS. The twenty-seventh
special session of the General Assembly, held from 8 to
10 May 2002, was devoted to children.

Ten
emergency special sessions have addressed situations in
which the Security Council found itself deadlocked, namely,
the Middle East (1958 and 1967), Hungary (1956), Suez (1956),
the Congo (1960), Afghanistan (1980), Palestine (1980 and
1982), Namibia (1981), the occupied Arab territories (1982)
and illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and
the rest of the occupied Palestinian Territory (1997, 1998,
1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002). The Assembly also decided to
adjourn the tenth emergency special session temporarily
and to authorize the President of the Assembly to resume
its meetings upon request from Member States.

Carrying
on the work of the Assembly
The work of the United Nations derives largely from the
decisions of the General Assembly and is carried out:

By committees and other bodies established by the Assembly
to study and report on specific issues, such as disarmament,
outer space, peacekeeping, economic development, the environment
and human rights; and
By the Secretariat of the United Nations-the Secretary-General
and his staff of international civil servants.